2.16.2010

YEN

Ok so I was able to exchange my money last week. I took in my hard earned US dollars and came out with less money in JP Yen. As you probably know, since the US economy is terrible right now, Americans loose out on exchange rates. Yen sounds like more, but it's not. For example something that is about 10.00 dollars in America is 10,000 Yen in Japan. The reason for this is that they don't break their "dollar" into decimals (cents in America). So one Yen is literately that - just one yen. There is nothing less. Pretty smart if you ask me. They also only have 3 bank notes but have 6 coins. Again, very smart. The life expectancy of a coin is FARRRRRRRRR longer than that of a bill. The US tried to adopt the "dollar" coin, but it never caught, too bad for us - it costs us more in the long run.

These are approximately the same.

Here are all the coins. 1 Yen, 5 Yen, 10 Yen, 50 Yen, 100 Yen, and 500 Yen. Again, this is very rough, but about .01, .05, .10, .50, 1.00, and 5.00 USD.